In disc drives, digital data are written to and read from a thin layer of magnetizable material on a surface of one or more rotating discs. Write and read operations are performed through a transducer which is carried in a slider body. The slider and transducer are sometimes collectively referred to as a head, and typically a single head is associated with each disc surface. When the transducer is an MR type sensor, the combination of the slider and the transducer are frequently referred to as an MR head. The heads are selectively moved under the control of electronic circuitry to any one of a plurality of circular, concentric data tracks on the disc surface by an actuator device. As the disc rotates, the heads "fly" several microinches above the surface disc.
Currently, head sliders frequently include a diamond-like carbon (DLC) overcoat of the air bearing surface (ABS). This overcoat serves several functions, including: providing for improved contact start-stop (CSS) durability; protecting the read/write transducer element(s) from incidental contact with the disc surface; and preventing corrosion of the read/write transducer element(s). However, the DLC overcoat in existing head slider designs requires that tradeoffs be made which can adversely effect the performance of the head. Generally, DLC overcoats in existing designs have resulted in an increase in the spacing between the transducer element pole tips and the disc surface for a given fly height of the head slider. In the alternative, to maintain the same magnetic spacing of the transducer element pole tips from the disc surface in a DLC coated head slider as compared to a non-coated head slider, the fly height of the DLC coated head slider must be reduced. Avoiding this problem by eliminating the DLC coating could result in damage to the read/write transducer element from incidental contact or corrosion.
The present invention provides a solution to this and other problems, and offers other advantages over the prior art.